


strange faces, stranger times

by jessequicksters



Series: rivertales [1]
Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Amnesia, Gen, Josie moonlighting as a librarian, Reunions, in their late 20's, ish, repressed memories of Riverdale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 06:00:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28987473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessequicksters/pseuds/jessequicksters
Summary: Josie doesn't remember much about Riverdale. She tries to find answers in a library, in the torn pages of a book, and bumps into an old, unfamiliar friend.
Relationships: Veronica Lodge & Josie McCoy
Series: rivertales [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126337
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	strange faces, stranger times

**Author's Note:**

> if I were Josie I would simply delete all my memories of Riverdale
> 
> (for the prompt librarian au + josie mccoy)

It’s late in the evening. The type of late where your glasses are falling over your nose. The type of late where you find meaning in the bottom of your coffee cup. The type of late where you’re staring at a page full of faces in an old book, yellowed and thin, in a place where you used to live.

Josie McCoy only remembers Riverdale when it’s late. It comes to her in flashes and it leaves her again like a bad dream that she’ll never be able to truly awake from. Life in that town feels so far removed from the life she has now, but she keeps falling into it, anyway, slipping back into that half-dazed nightmare.

She doesn’t exactly know what she’s looking for. She doesn’t know why she’s here in this library, digging up bones of a past life. She has a good life, everyone around her tells her. She has a career, a fiancé, achievements one could only dream of.

So why is she moonlighting as a librarian just to escape from it all? It’s not normal, apparently, to forget large chunks of your teenage years. Childhood, sure.

It’s just, starting a new family has made her think about her own. Her mother who never talks about the town they used to live in. Her father who has never even stepped foot there. She even tried to visit Riverdale a few months ago, only to find herself unable to get off the train when it pulled up at the station.

Books were the only safe place to explore what felt like a gaping void in her heart. Her neck snaps up when she hears door swish open—this late?

A young woman pulls up to the table, too well-dressed to be a student, wearing clothes that were too expensive to come from anything but a family with a name. She’s wearing a blue pencil skirt and black heels that match her hair, neatly trimmed in a stylish, slightly edgy 60’s cut.

“Can I help you with anything?” Josie says, a hand still on the yearbook page, sprawled open.

The young woman looks at her, with a face that twists, then breaks into a smile. “Josie? Is that—is that you?”

“Do I know you?” Josie asks, sitting up straight.

She looks slightly taken aback, if not offended. “I know you got your big break like you said you would, but I didn’t think you’d pull a blank on me like that. But. . . I can’t understand why you would be working as a librarian when your next album is due for release in like, two months.”

Josie tilts her head to the side.

“What?” she lifts her wrist, heavy with the weight of a pearly bracelet. “We all keep tabs on you. After all, you did it, Josie. You got out of Riverdale and _actually_ made a name for yourself.”

“You’re from Riverdale,” Josie stammers, “and we’re friends?”

She leans over and looks right through her red-rimmed glasses. “I really can’t tell if you’re still pulling your diva act or if you genuinely don’t remember me.”

Josie then notices her eyes flickering to the page she has open, which is quickly snatched from under her hand as she displays the book up for her to see. “Yes, Josie. I was your friend—see? Veronica Lodge. In the flesh. That’s Archie Andrews, the boy we both dated. Betty, my best friend. Valerie and Melody—your Pussycats.”

Josie remembers them. Of course, she does. She doesn’t speak to any of them anymore, considering how her ego had gotten in the way of her ability to keep things professional between friends. Everyone else, though. . . nothing.

“I actually came to look for a couple of legal books on behalf of my no-good father, but perhaps this is a sign from above that I should just walk away from it all,” the woman now named Veronica says, setting the book down. “What time does your shift end? Let me take you out for a drink. I don’t know what happened to you, Josie, but I’d be happy to help you fill in the gaps.”

“Yes,” Josie says immediately.

“Yes? As in what time your shift ends?”

Josie shakes her head and stands up, feeling a little bit silly now. Blood rushing to the head, or something. “I can leave now. I’m not actually working here. I’m just filling in for a friend—we made a deal. I take up her post while I dig around during the nights.”

“What does she get in return? And, can’t you just—borrow books from a library?”

Josie laughs. “It helps me think. Being here, alone at night. Life gets busy for me. Loud. I haven’t been feeling like myself lately—I didn’t get into an accident or anything, really. I know what it looks like. My therapist says it’s the stress. Anyway, I’m turning this into a thing—but yes, let’s go out and just talk? I have a couple of members’ clubs that I trust, if you don’t mind me choosing the venue?”

Veronica’s nearly beaming, then, “You were the one person in Riverdale who always had good taste, Josie McCoy. I’ll let you take me out anywhere.”

**Author's Note:**

> part of ANOTHER quarantine fic challenge with [illea](https://archiveofourown.org/users/illea)


End file.
